Americans expect further charges against the Trump organization, but not against Trump himself

July 12, 2021, 1:42 PM GMT+0

Americans in the latest Economist/YouGov poll approve of the recent grand jury indictments of the Trump Organization on tax-related charges and think more indictments are likely. Even with more charges anticipated, Americans do not expect the investigation to lead to the indictment of former President Donald Trump himself.

Democrats overwhelmingly approve of the indictments (86%), and a plurality of Independents agree (43% approve, 32% disapprove). But Republicans think differently about the charges, although one in six Republicans approve (17%) of them, and an additional one in five Republicans (21%) aren’t sure what to think.

Currently, only the Trump Organization itself and its Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been indicted. But Americans don’t think that is where the indictments end. Half say it is likely that there will be other charges brought, but fewer than half believe those will include charges against former President Trump.

A majority of Democrats (56%) think it is at least somewhat likely that the former president will face charges, and so do a third of Independents (32%) and a quarter of Republicans (26%). More in each partisan group expect charges against other executives in the Trump Organization. Seven in 10 Democrats (72%) think it’s likely that the investigation will lead to further charges against such executives, compared to half of Independents (48%) and one-third of Republicans (34%).

Should there be charges brought against Donald Trump for his role in the family business? Americans are just about as likely to think the President should face charges (44%) as others in his organization should (46%). More Americans view the investigation as legitimate than think it is politically motivated: a “witch hunt” as the former President likes to say.

By 46% to 30%, they say there should be more charges against Trump Organization executives; by 44% to 33% they say the former President should have charges brought against him personally.

There seems to be a lot of wishful thinking on this issue: those who approve of the original charges brought think there will be more indictments to follow either against Trump executives or Trump himself (71% and 51% respectively); those who do approve expect there will be none (49% and 59% respectively).

See the toplines and crosstabs from this Economist/YouGov poll

Related: Approval of the Supreme Court dropped after last week’s decisions

Methodology: The Economist survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 US Adult Citizens interviewed online between July 3 - 6, 2021. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the US Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 Presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all US citizens. The margin of error is approximately 2.8% for the overall sample.

Image: Getty

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